Habitat Improve your hunting land!

Whether you're planting your first food plot, working on forest stand improvement, or preparing for a prescribed burn, the NDA has the information you need to help you be successful. We rely on the latest research and experts in their field to bring you the most reliable, up-to-date information on managing your land for the benefit of white-tailed deer and other wildlife.

Habitat

Food Plots, Feed or Fire: The Real Costs Per Pound of Deer Forage

Jan 18, 2023 Dr. Marcus Lashley and Jordan Nanney

Prescribed fire is one of the most useful deer habitat management tools. In our experience, members of the National Deer Association are well-versed at this point in prescribed fire’s benefits. However, there are still some…

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Habitat

Is Craig Harper’s FSI Cocktail Safe for Non-Target Trees?

Jan 9, 2023 NDA Staff

You can quickly restore sunlight to a closed-canopy forest to fuel deer forage production – a technique called “Forest Stand Improvement” (FSI). We recommend girdling and spraying select trees to kill them standing using an…

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Ladino Clover for Deer | A Step-by-Step Guide

Mar 15, 2022 Bob Westerfield

This article was updated on March 15, 2022 Few things are more attractive in the deer food plot world than a solid stand of ladino clover, particularly when it is still there after the third…

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Frost Seeding Clover and Other Food Plot Species: When and How

Mar 1, 2022 Kip Adams

This article was updated 3/1/2022 If you live in an area where the surface layer of soil freezes during winter, you can save fuel and equipment costs by frost seeding a portion of your clover…

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Burn Outside the Box: Try Prescribed Fire at a New Time of Year

Feb 9, 2022 Luke Resop

What do wildfires and prescribed fires have in common? Not much. Most fires we hear about in the media consume thousands of acres of forest at a time, threaten communities, and take weeks or months…

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Your Food Plots are Dying for You to Learn the Other 2 Types of Weed Control

Feb 2, 2022 Ryan Basinger

For the diehard food-plotter, it doesn’t get much worse than pouring time and resources into the perfect deer food plot only to see your hopes and dreams overtaken by undesirable weeds. Unfortunately this has been…

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Fresh Tips on Using Fire for Better Deer Habitat

Jan 12, 2022 Craig Harper

This is not the same old advice you’ve heard before about prescribed fire. These simple tips will increase your hunting and habitat management success. I continue to maintain that fire is the single best management…

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Do Brassicas Actually Get “Sweeter” After a Frost?

Dec 22, 2021 Mark Turner

We’ve all heard it in one form or another – that deer select brassicas more strongly after frost because the starches turn into sugars, making the plant sweeter. At the University of Tennessee, we set…

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Know Your Deer Trees: Ozark Chinquapin

Sep 29, 2021 Cheyne Matzenbacher

Once thought to be extirpated from its range, the Ozark chinquapin (Castanea ozarkensis) is a drought tolerant hardwood tree that reaches up to 65 feet tall and 2-3 feet in diameter.  Ozark chinquapins bloom in…

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15-Acre Fixer-Upper: Property Tour & Long-Term Goals

Aug 11, 2021 Brian Grossman

I think it’s safe to say that 2020 is a year most of us won’t soon forget, no matter how hard we try. But for me, there was one bright spot that made an otherwise…

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